Patriots Trade Randy Moss to Minnesota

And just like that... he was gone.

In a somewhat shocking bye-week move, the Patriots have chosen to close the book on the Randy Moss era in New England. In return for shipping Moss’ talents to Minneapolis, the Patriots will receive a 3rd Round draft pick in 2011. Here is a full list of the Patriots Draft Picks in 2011.

After failing to catch a ball for the first time in a Patriot uniform, Moss hardened his stance that he wanted out of New England. Moss’ agent Joel Segal reportedly asked for a trade after Week 1 of the NFL season, while Moss and Belichick had a verbal “dust-up” last night that probably stamped his ticket out of town.

Randy Moss’ departure will certainly be felt on offense for the Patriots. The lack of a true deep threat could mean double teams on Aaron Hernandez and Wes Welker, or more eight-man fronts. While Brandon Tate has incredible speed, he hasn’t proven himself to be a legitimate vertical receiver in the NFL.

Two names that come to mind that could help the Patriots are Vincent Jackson and Lee Evans. Both are in their 20′s with outstanding resumes of down-the-field catches. Each could cost the Pats a couple of day two picks in 2011, but that seems like a small price to play to keep the NFL’s number one offense buzzing.

Randy Moss will face the Patriots on October 31st, for the Week 8 Vikings/Patriots matchup.

16 Responses to “Patriots Trade Randy Moss to Minnesota”

Really hoping for a Vincent Jackson to New England trade. Chargers are looking to get rid of him for a good price (possibly 2 and 3 round draft pick) and the Patriots are looking for a receiver and can let go of a couple of picks especially since they own two in each of the first two rounds including a possible top 5 pick in the first round from Oakland. I don’t know but I’m hearing a lot of rumors.

Sure the future looks nice but what are the Patriots going to do for the rest of the season? Who is going to stretch the field and allow Welker and the TE’s to run up the middle and get those easy completions we need when they matter the most?

Take a look at Randy’s stats on a game by game basis. He put up crazy numbers against bad teams….he was great for fantasy leagues. He also got on ESPN with some one handed grabs…but against the Jets he did nothing in the second half. No grabs vs Dolphins. He can’t handle the tough matchups anymore. I loved him, but he is only going to get slower. If he can’t beat Revis now, he won’t do it in the playoffs either.

I hate saying next year this, and next year that. But with all of these draft picks, Bill needs to do some defensive damage, and thats the truth. We need a RB for sure. But we need at least one DL and another OLB. I hope that he uses both first round picks on Defense. It was not when Brady through bombs, but its even more phone watching our team intercept and sack. It is a long time until the draft, and I hope that the Patriots can get through this season with a lot of learning under their belt, and some successful Defensive schemeing.

It makes sense to get rid of the distraction to the Patriots, but he was a heckuva distraction for opposing teams, too, often drawing double coverage away from Welker and the tight ends.

Now, maybe it goes the other way around with the short game drawing people away from the long-ball threats, rookies though they may be. The other thing the Pats lost is a tall wide receiver. I wonder if Rob Gronkowski just got nominated to flanker or some such?

I hate trashing a player when he is gone but Randy Moss was all about Randy Moss. I can remember his DISMAL performance last year (year 2 of his 3 year contract) against the Titans when he left Tom out to dry on a couple of pass plays and a failed block he miss that got Tom planted on a snowy field. I am so glad to see him go! The Patriots won superbowls with average hardworking receivers not arrogant pissants!

This was a great trade for the Pats and the reason the Patriots are so successful is because Bill adapts to his mistakes and learns from them.

I wish they could of received at least a second rounder for trading him. Minnesota was desperate and I’m a little surprised the pats let him go for only a 3rd round pick. There must be some factors that we don’t know about that went into this decision.

I have a feeling this will not be the last trade before the Oct 19th deadline the Pats make. V-Jax or Lee Evans do make good sense but also don’t count out someone like Deion Branch since Seattle has younger WR’s they are trying to get in the mix.